This article is written by Mahesh Mamadapur, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Welcome to all readers to the 126th century on the blog. Yes, we now have 12,600 songs on board with this post.

It’s now customary to have a special post or a song on such occasions. The last one saw a bundle of century celebrations in a single post. This time however it will be different in the sense that the highlight will be on the song itself and its historic importance rather than other aspects.
A certain impending exam for accreditation of my qualification and experience is holding me back to write more frequently on the blog. But when I came across this discovery, I was tempted to ask Atul ji if I could have it as a century post. In fact the conceptualization of this post began a little before the 125th century post. But then its grand design and posting was already decided and hence I sought for the 126th century post slot for this song.

The name of Ashok Ghosh will forever be remembered for introducing this singer to the Indian cinema. He was the first composer to give a chance to a very young singer. It so happened that the singer was also introduced as the lead actor in the film with Nalini Jaywant. The year was 1941 and the singer as we all can easily guess is Mukesh. But were Nirdosh (1941) songs the first ever recordings of Mukesh? We will learn in a few moments.

I had begun my association with Sudhir ji by sending him a few newspaper articles and other information of Mukesh which I had collected through the years. This was before he had started his very productive and highly appreciable efforts of tracing, uploading and posting the first few dozens of Mukesh songs in the films through his series “The voice of Mukesh”. On receiving the info he had thanked me enough in his return mail. However, I now feel that I had sent a few drops of water to a person who owns an ocean of information. 🙂

Anyway, the relevance of my first interaction with him to this post is the withholding of one article for a very odd reason of the problem of scanning. The article was on a broadsheet of “Screen” a weekly magazine which used to appear in the form of a newspaper earlier. Then, I had found it difficult to scan because of its size, but with this post coming up, I had to send it across by some means as there was a very important piece of information in it which one usually does not come across in the hundreds of articles which have appeared over the years on Mukesh.

The said article is dated Sept 1st 2006 and is written by Sanjay R Pillai. It’s a short article with the title MUKESH MATTERS in huge font and a large photo of Mukesh occupying much of the space. I will be happy to share this article with anyone who wishes to read it. It has a few interesting statistics of his songs, acting career and a very important information.

We all know that composer Roshan and Mukesh were studying in the same school. Whether, they were class-mates is debatable as there is a wide difference of 6 years in age among the two. We also know that Mukesh was a popular singer in his school and the students always looked forward to hear him sing in the school functions. After his matriculation in 1939, Mukesh briefly worked in a Govt service and ran away to Mumbai in October 1940. His life and career after coming to Mumbai is well known and documented.

However there is a very interesting segment to his profession, interest and life before he came to Mumbai which I believe has not been covered or addressed in the blog so far. It is this segment that is the highlight of this century post.

The screen article referred above says that the singer had recorded six private songs in Delhi itself before he came to Mumbai. In fact the author goes ahead and names the six songs in the article. This obviously was known to me ever since I had the article in my possession but I was under the false impression that they were not available for hearing or released in any mode. When I came across one of the songs, the search led to another three and I decided that the songs very much deserved to be put up on the blog.

Some web-sites say that these private songs were recorded secretly by Mukesh. It’s quite a possibility because of the taboo of being associated with films and singing in those days.

What makes the six songs unique is that they pre-date the Nirdosh (1941) songs. So when one of the songs is taken up it becomes the oldest song of Mukesh to appear on the blog.

The table below enlists the very rare songs and their respective 78 rpm record numbers. All six songs are believed to have been recorded by Mukesh in Delhi in the year 1940 just before he came to Mumbai. Needless to say these details and the confirmation of the songs were accorded to me by Shri Harish Raghuwanshi ji, with whom I interacted a lot through mails. I thank him profusely for his help and guidance in presenting this post.

Song Title

78 rpm record number

Ab Kyon Hai Dilgar

N 14504

Allah Maula Allah Maula Dekh Zara

N 14504

Preet Ka Jeena Hai Jeena….

N 14513

Saavariya Raag Se Aag Lagi…..

N 14513

Gokul Nagri Jaana, Gokul Nagri Jaana

N 16396

Meri Andheri Kutiyaa Mein Wo Aaye Ujaala Hi Hoga

N 16396

Of the above 6 songs, the first two bearing the record number N 14504 are difficult to find. However the remaining 4 are available. But I am sure that there are music enthusiasts out there possessing all the songs. If anyone has the songs from record number N 14504, I make an appeal for sharing them on the blog. Also, more knowledge readers can please extend additional information of all these 6 songs as the details are very sketchy.
I have taken up the 5th song for this post. On hearing the first few words of the song, the mind instantly recalls this iconic vintage era song by Pankaj Mullick from Kapal Kundala (1939). The sort of hurried rendering at the fag end of the original song is emulated in this version by Mukesh too.

Similarly the 4th song very much resembles yet another famous and timeless classic song of K L Saigal from Dushman (1939). It is interesting to note that these songs were sung by Mukesh in 1940 with both the films being released a year earlier.

I am not sure if there have been discussions in any of the past posts or comments regarding these six songs sung by Mukesh. However as I have said earlier, this song is the first among the six to be posted here. Authentic information regarding the composers and lyricists of the songs is not known. The only reliable information available is from Mukesh Geetkosh wherein the lyric writer of the present song is mentioned as L.A.Naazish Rizvi.

Irrespective of the sequence in which we take up the songs, what matters is the quality of the voice in the songs and the circumstances under which they were recorded by the famed singer. A voice which had no clue where it was headed and what popularity, recognition and legendary status it would attain over the next three and a half decades. Mukesh was no doubt groomed and encouraged by Anil Biswas, Naushad and other composers in his initial phase. However, years before he sang their songs, one can detect a promise and a legend in the making. Sincerity, sanctity, purity and total devotion to singing, the virtues of which made Mukesh a household name with millions of fans all over the world, is very much evident in the rendering.

So here is the young singer, all of 17 years of age, with his most primeval voice on the blog so far.

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3 Responses to "Gokul nagri jaanaa"

What a song to celebrate the occasion
Sheds of piya milan ko jaana of Kapal Kundala(1939)
Trust Harishji “Master on Mukesh” (MOM) to confirm.
As said earlier his claim to have about 100 songs of Mukesh which nobody is aware of is slowly coming true and taking shape.
.

” I am not sure if there have been discussions in any of the past posts or comments regarding these six songs sung by Mukesh …..”

I distinctly remember that in one of my comments made about 3-4 years ago on this Blog, I had given this list of songs and had asserted that these were the oldest-pre-Nirdosh- songs of Mukesh. In fact my list was a longer one too,I remember.
Unfortunately,I have made so many comments here that it is not easy to remember or locate where and when I have made this comment.
Nevertheless, it does not undermine your efforts to dig out further details with Record numbers. Well done Mahesh ji. You are a True Mukesh Bhakt, indeed !